


Unhealed Wounds

by liberrystone



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Crime Fighting, Dark Past, Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Drug Dealing, Eventual Smut, F/M, Gavin has a backstory, Gavin's a redeemable character, He still dislikes androids at first, Heavy Angst, Heavy Drinking, Heavy Love Triangle, Lost and I mean LOTS of swearing, Overprotective Gavin, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Reader doesn't know Connor's deviant at first, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Torture, red ice smuggling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-07-15 17:59:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16068359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liberrystone/pseuds/liberrystone
Summary: "This is where the biggest difference falls between me and you, Connor. You don't feel pain, you don't experience panic, fear, grief or all of those combined into one huge mess...""Who said I don't feel all of those emotions?"**You hate androids with a burning passion and if things couldn't have gotten any worse, you get assigned a new case by Fowler after Hank goes missing one night. You have to work alongside Connor to find the reason for Hank’s sudden disappearance. You face many challenges along the way, but you never expect to find out that the case you’re working on is connected with your dark past





	1. Black Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Update: The work was originally 1st person reader insert, but I decided to tweak the text a bit and stick to the usual 2nd person reader instead. Let me know if it's better.

     " _Code eight... Officer Y/L/N calling for help. I'm chasing a suspect with unidentified license plate number down the A61 highway,_ " you repeated yourself for the third time now, your patience slowly running thin, but you received nothing from the other end yet again. By this time around somebody had to answer from the precinct but all you could hear was silence.

     " _Fuck,_ " you spit the word out through your clenched teeth, gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying to catch up with a black car driving ahead of you. It was dark outside, around midnight. You caught two men robbing a jewelry store as you were returning home from work. As soon as they saw you drive by, they immediately jumped into their vehicle, speeding down the road. You didn't waste the opportunity and turned on police sirens, trying to contact the dispatch right away for the needed help. The situation was slowly becoming ridiculous and the irritation started tugging at your emotions.

  You sped up swiftly, tailing them close and was about to drive in front of the car to force the men to stop but another vehicle didn't let you, appearing out of nowhere to block the road. Your foot landed on the brakes instinctively as you almost crashed into them, your whole body jolting forwards. You breathed out the air that you were holding in your lungs and heard the car stop behind you.

  You got surrounded.

  You took the gun slowly from the holster and opened the door, stepping outside. You neared the car in front of you but stopped in your tracks as soon as you heard the voice speak right behind you feeling a cold barrel touch the nape of your neck.

     " _Don't fucking move,_ " the person behind you accentuated every word. You had no other choice but to raise both of your hands in defeat. You only gave them a second to react before you turned around quickly and grabbed the stranger by the wrist. Loud bang echoed through the area almost making you go deaf. You were lucky it didn't shoot you as you managed to avert the stranger's hand away from you on time.

  You tore the gun from the man's hand swiftly, pointing it back at him. You noticed as the car door opened before you. A tall silhouette stepped out onto the road. The man was wearing a black suit, clearly a businessman of some sorts, but you couldn't recognize him. You didn't even notice how more armed men appeared out of nowhere, holding their aim at you as they got closer with every slow step. At this point you knew you wouldn't be able to fight back, not 7 of them.

     " _Knock her out,_ " the man commanded quickly and before you could make any sense out of this whole situation, a needle got jabbed into your neck. You hissed quietly, feeling the effects of the drug straight away as the vision before you started swaying. You didn't even manage to take a step and you were already lying unconscious on the ground.

  Your eyelids slowly fluttered open, as you looked up straight at the light hanging above you, almost blinding yourself. Your memory was blurry, you could barely make out what was happening due to the surroundings which were pitch blackness. The slight pain was dancing in your chest, your throat tight- making it hard to breathe. Your heart immediately sped up both from sudden panic and fear as the blood started pulsating loudly in your ears.

  You looked around the room, noticing that you were lying on some metal table like from those horror movies you'd seen with your hands and legs firmly secured to it by metal shackles. You tried moving your head upwards when the sharp metal edge painfully cut into your neck. You almost choked yourself, grunting loudly from the pain that stroke your throat and your head fell back onto the table. 

  You looked around once again, trying to see at least something, but all the corners of the room were drowning in dark shadows. You could barely pinpoint anything. 

  You had to breathe in slowly, trying to keep yourself as calm as possible, even though you were already in a state of sheer panic, because you perfectly knew what was about to come. There were enough clues that told you everything.

  You were about to be butchered like an animal. Or worse- slowly tortured.  

  You squeezed your eyes shut, sucking in deep breaths, as your throat grew tighter and tighter to the point where you started panting, your palms sweating and your whole body trembling under the shocks of panic.

  You didn't want to thrash against the shackles, but your mind was literally screaming for you to do it, otherwise you'd  _faint_ , otherwise you'd _die_.

  You needed to run, you needed to leave that place, you needed something that would calm you down.

  But you were there lying on that table- restricted and helpless, slowly being tortured by your own panicked mind. You didn't want to lose it, you didn't want to scream, but it was difficult when you were left alone to wonder what was about to happen. And your imagination sure was running wild, putting you into various gruesome scenarios.

  Seconds dragged out into minutes for you and the first wave of panic slowly started subsiding, leaving nothing but weakness that overtook your body. Your whole chest felt heavy as you continuously struggled to catch your breaths, still trembling under the aftershocks of panic.

   And then your ears suddenly caught a faint sound of someone's footsteps that started getting louder and louder, coming closer and closer to the room you were in. You forgot how to breathe for a moment, too concentrated on the footsteps. Not until the realization hit you out of nowhere, bringing another wave of panic along with it.

  You tensed up against the binds, trying to slide your palms from under the shackles, but it was to no avail, you only started injuring your wrists against the sharp ends of metal. The tension slowly started rising when the footsteps got louder and you were sure that the door would get opened any moment.

  And it did.

  You gulped loudly when the footsteps died down and you already could hear the key turning in the lock. You were on the verge of spilling your emotions out when the door got opened by a tall dark silhouette.

     " _You're wide awake, I see. That's good,"_  a deep baritone stroked your ears as the door got locked back up.

  You breathed out slowly through your mouth, feeling your heart trying to crawl out through your throat as it thumped heavily against your heaving chest. The sweat gathered on your palms, cold shivers flew down your back making your stomach convulse under sheer anxiety. You struggled to swallow, feeling just how dry your throat has gotten.

 The man moved from his place and closer to the table you were lying on. His shadow landed on you, blocking the brightness of a lamp from your view as he leaned above you with a wide smirk dancing on his face. You felt his cold and rough fingers touch your cheek, as they slipped along your jawline before leaving your skin.

     " _Don't be scared... We'll just have some... fun..."_   the man's voice rang out and soon after followed something you least expected to hear- the high and teeth gritting sound of a power drill. Your stomach dropped from fear immediately. You hated it so much and perfectly knew what was about to happen.

     " _What do you want from me?_ " the words spilled from your mouth, as you tried to keep your voice steady, but it was trembling nonetheless.

  The man before you only laughed mockingly as the drill started getting louder.

     " _What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry? That I don't know what the fuck is happening?!_ " you forced the words out feeling your whole chest pulsate along your heartbeat as you tried to catch your breaths.

  The drill was close, so close you wanted to scream for help, struggle against the shackles; yet, you decided to keep your blood cold and mind collected because you had no other choice- you were helpless. 

     " _Please don't fucking do this,_ " you mumbled out, your whole body tensing against the binds, but your pleas didn't make him stop- it only encouraged him as he let the power drill come into your view. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the hard realization hit you out of nowhere. You were about to get tortured, that tool was about to tear a hole in your body. 

   You started thrashing against the shackles, trying to slip your hands from under them for another time, but it was no use as the sharp edges started cutting against your skin.

     " _Please don't do this_ _!_ " you screamed, looking up at the man pleadingly, but he only smirked down at you, his wicked grin making you almost angry. " _Please!!_ " you screamed once again when he snorted and you felt his free hand snake into your hair out of nowhere as it yanked at it carelessly.

     " _You're one whiny bitch, Y/N..._ " he grunted and moved the end of the drill closer to your face, almost letting it touch your cheek. " _I'm actually not amazed_ ," he scoffed. " _I knew you were a fucking coward, just like your father was_ ," he grinned once again and the light above you flickered for a moment, before it turned back on, revealing a completely different man that stood above you. He was dressed in a business suit unlike the first man. On his hands he wore leather gloves. His dark hair was slicked back. Dark, almost black eyes were staring down at you as the same small smirk danced on his plump lips.

     " _Now, now_..." he cooed out of nowhere, his low voice vibrating on your eardrums.

     " _It'll only last a moment._.." he soon added and you felt the pain right away as the sharp end of a drill pierced your skin on the torso. You whined, clenching your jaw tightly, fighting the scream that wanted to erupt from your lips. The pain didn't stop, it only worsened as the man continued drilling into the muscle uninterrupted. You couldn't take the pain any longer as your own loud scream woke you up immediately.

  Your whole body jolted violently and your eyelids flew wide open, as you drew in a sharp breath looking up at the ceiling of the living room. You accidentally fell asleep after drinking a few glasses of whiskey. The bottle was still there- standing on the low glass table next to you. 

  You let out a steadier breath and rubbed your face with your fingers, still not able to shake off the nightmare from your mind. You could still feel your heart pounding in your chest, the pain burning on your stomach, but it was all starting to slowly calm down. Not until your phone rang out of nowhere, startling you all over again. 

     "Fuckin' hell," you breathed and looked around the room, trying to remember where you left your phone. Your eyes soon landed on a jacket still lying around on one of the armchairs. You threw it there once you returned back home. 

  You quickly pushed yourself upwards and from the sofa, your view going dark immediately. You stood there for a second, swaying in the air slightly as the headache hit your temples right away making you sick to your stomach. You dragged yourself towards the chair and fished out the phone, curious to know who was bothering you this late.

   On the screen with big letters shone a name- Gavin. At this point you knew it was something work- related.

     "Detective Y/L/N speaking," you croaked per usual and walked back to the sofa, sinking into all the decorative pillows as you threw your feet up on the small coffee table.

     "Jesus, Y/N, what happened to you?" he asked- all shocked, his own tired gruff voice stroking your eardrums.

     "Accidentally took a longer nap," you answered honestly, not even bothering to come up with lame excuses.

     "Doesn't sound like Y/N I know..." he murmured.

     "Just tell me why you're calling this late at night already," you sighed, too tired to deal with his attempts of a casual chat.

     " I'm still at the precinct. Fowler been fuming about Hank not showing up to work whole evening..." he murmured, his tone filling up with annoyance quick.

     "That I noticed," you agreed with a deeper sigh.

     "I been told to go inspect Hank's house, but I know I'm not the one to deal with the old man's crap," he explained everything, probably hoping that you'll agree to help him out straight away. Well he was wrong.

     "I thought he had that plastic friend of his to take care of him..." you couldn't let your guard down this easy, too tired to drive your ass to the other side of town just so you could check up on Hank. He probably lied around in a pool of alcohol, knocked out as always. What other shit could've possibly happened to him?

     "You didn't notice? That plastic asshole been wandering around precinct whole day like some lost puppy before he probably got ordered back to Cyberlife by Fowler," he snorted loudly.

   Perfect, just what you needed... Another sleepless night spent taking care of an old drunk man. You weren't gonna have any of it.

     "You owe me one, you asshole," you warned him in an annoyed grunt and he only laughed on the other end of the line.

     "That's a deal then," he agreed without any additional arguments, even though he liked to argue with you a lot. This time seemed urgent though.

     "Alright, I'll drive to his house tomorrow morning and check what's up. I'm too tired for this shit," you grumbled under your nose and moved your feet back down onto the cold floor. "Goodnight," you added quickly and ended the call before he'd say anything else. You knew he'd start objecting your decision and try talking you into doing it tonight. He could only dream about it.

     "This will be fuckin interesting," you murmured to yourself and forced your tired body back on your feet, walking upstairs to change into a fresh set of clothes.


	2. Something's Not Right

   You turned up really early just as you promised to Gavin, choking down black coffee from a plastic cup which you bought on your way to work from a small coffee shop. Your head was pounding from last night as you ended up downing a whole bottle of whiskey.

  The hangover wasn't letting you think straight while you dragged your half-asleep body into the precinct, cursing at everything and everyone. Five hours of sleep didn't do you any good and you almost overslept your alarm clock when in the last second your mind finally came to a conclusion that you had to go to work.

  You passed all the desks of your co-workers, your biker jacket and backpack weighting down your shoulders, bringing back the feeling of pure discomfort that started nagging at your spine. You stopped next to your desk, ready to toss your backpack onto the floor when you almost spilled your coffee all over yourself as you got startled by a sudden and firm " _hello, detective_ " from behind you. You knew exactly who it was. You could detect their fake-sounding voices from miles away without even batting an eye at them.

  You exhaled through your nostrils carefully and let the strap slip from your fingers as your backpack landed on the floor with a loud thud. You put the cup on your desk with a slightly shaky hand, feeling your heart thumping hard in your chest.

  That jumpscare of his woke you up good. And pissed you off good as well as you grit your teeth, your hand already itching to punch him.

  You turned around on the heel of your boot to finally be met with him face-to-face. He was much taller than you remembered him to be, dressed in the same work attire as usual: a plain white dress shirt hiding under his android jacket, black tie and black pants. You looked up at his brown eyes which were waiting patiently for you to finally respond, studying your face. He looked too human and that fact alone creeped the shit out of you. If not his LED that was planted on his temple, you would've thought he was just a regular person. You didn't like that aspect.

  You didn't like any of it.

  Even though Hank was one of your closest co-workers, you rarely ever got to interact with Connor. Mainly because you tried to stay as far away from androids as possible, keeping your contact with them to bare minimum. That was impossible to accomplish, though, since those plastic bastards were everywhere.

  But here you were, about to chat with one. If Hank was giving him quite a hard time with his trust issues, boy did he have a big storm coming while being around you.

     "What do you want?" you asked, your tone cold.

     "I was assigned a new case by Fowler to work on with you. Lieutenant Anderson has been announced missing last night. I checked his house to see if he was there. He wasn't," he explained the situation calmly, his brown eyes trained on you intently.

     "You broke into his house?!" you finally realized, slightly amazed by his reckless decisions.

  Nobody told him to go inspect his house. Yet, he still ended up doing it... Did this robot actually care about Hank this much?.

     "Detective Reed was assigned that task by Fowler, but he refused to do it," Connor answered quickly, almost as if he was trying to protect himself from your harsh judgement.

     "His name's Gavin," you corrected him. "It would be really beneficial for you if you started talking more casually. You're already starting to piss me off with your formal talk," you murmured under your nose, all annoyed by the android's presence.

     "I get it, detective... You don't like me," Connor soon spoke out, with the words that caught you off guard completely.

  How the hell did he know? Did Gavin tell him? Did Fowler warn him about you?

     "I guess I should keep a good distance from you, since you have such an enormous phobia of androids," you heard him add in afterwards as his lips curled upwards slightly into a smug smirk.

  That plastic piece of shit, thinking that he was being slick with his sarcastic jokes.

  Fowler must've definitely warned him about you.

     "You read my mind, pal. You better keep that distance away from me, because you never know, my phobic ass could shoot you accidentally," you shot back at him and let the same fake smug smile touch your lips as you raised one eyebrow at him triumphantly.

     "You know you can't actually kill me, right?" he took a braver step towards you, his eyes never leaving yours as he towered over you with his height. You could swear you felt his breath feather out across your face for a moment from how close he stood in front of you. You had to collect yourself for a second as you suddenly felt too little compared to him. Almost helpless.

     "Oh I can. With a bullet straight through your android brain," you shot back stubbornly, staring back at him from under your lashes.

  A small smile twitched at the corners of his lips, but he didn't end up fully smiling.

     "I'm stronger than you, detective," he half-whispered. "I was programmed to combat any deviants that could stand in my way."

     "And I finished four years of police self-defense training and was heavily into boxing when I was a teenager, what difference does it make? I could easily take you down right here and now," you crossed your arms over your chest.

  Why were you even arguing over this useless non-sense?

     "Are we gonna go and finally inspect Hank's house more thoroughly? Or should we continue with this?" he motioned his hand between you and you almost rolled your eyes as you moved away from him, because his closeness was getting too overwhelming.

     "After I get a fresh cup of coffee," you explained shortly and slipped out of your jacket quickly, letting it hang on the backrest of your chair. "Don't get bored while I'm gone," you added in sarcastically and patted him on the back as you walked past him and straight to the break room.

  You knew Gavin would be there, already waiting for you with his own cup of coffee. As soon as you opened the glass door, your tired eyes immediately landed on him. He was sat on a tall bar stool next to a small round table with an empty coffee cup in front of him, browsing his phone out of pure boredom. He always showed up for breakfast at around this time, too lazy to eat at home.

     "Morning," you greeted him monotonously and felt his gaze jump upwards at you as you moved straight towards the coffeemaker standing on one of the cupboards lined up under a wall. You grabbed the bigger cup and filled it with coffee almost to the brim.

     "Had a rough night?" he read your extremely tired face as soon as you walked in, reminding you of last night's terrors.

     "Yeah..." you admitted without second thoughts, grabbing two long packets of sugar and dumping their contents into a cup. "And working with Connor definitely not gonna help me," you sighed, raising your eyebrows, to which he only let out a breathy laugh.

     "Ever had to deal with a nightmare?" you threw in the question out of the blue, too tired to even wonder whether you should actually open up more to him about your inner-demons.

     "I used to get them often when I was a stupid teenager. What are you hinting at though?" his voice grew serious and slightly worried.

  He knew about your father and what he did before he passed away. But you never told him anything more, keeping your mouth sealed shut. Maybe you just didn't want him to be related to your past, because you knew he'd continue pushing on you for more. Constantly bringing up all the wounds that didn't heal up completely.

     "Nothing..." you only whispered, stirring the coffee with a spoon you found lying around on a counter- so lost in your own thoughts that you didn't even notice how he got up and walked closer to you.

     "I never seen you this tired before," he soon spoke out, leaning against the cupboard that stood closest to you as he crossed his arms over his chest.

     "Well, now you have," you looked up at him and forced out a smile, which only twitched at the corners of your lips until they dropped back down. You couldn't help but notice the sudden look of worry lingering on his face, when he noticed your extremely pale face and blue circles dancing under your eyes.

     "You couldn't sleep because of a nightmare, right?" he finally came to a conclusion. He wasn't dumb after all, easily reading your hints.

     "You got that part right," you shot back and averted your eyes from him, winging any opportunity of actually telling him what happened. Something was still keeping you quiet. Maybe it was doubt, distrust, fear... You couldn't figure it out yourself.

  You only grabbed the spoon from the cup, throwing it into the sink.

     "I know you're hiding something from me, I can tell when you're lying or avoiding an important topic," he kept on pushing, hoping that you'd tell him everything.

  You only sighed heavily, feeling defeated by his continuous nagging. You knew that eventually you'd have to open up to him. If not now, then later on when another similar opportunity would strike. And he was a stubborn man, maybe even more stubborn than you were.

     "You know how I told you about my father?" you finally spoke out, licking your lips nervously as you already felt your chest grow tight. It always happened when you were asked or reminded about your past- you became all emotional and vulnerable.

     "That he was a drug dealer? Yeah, I know about that part," he answered and furrowed his eyebrows, still not entirely sure where you were heading with your sudden question.

     "But I didn't tell you what really happened," you half whispered, letting your arms snake around your chest. "How I was involved in my father's business," you said, watching the realization hit him out of nowhere as his eyes widened and his jaw tightened.

     "My father being a drug dealer is just a small part of a bigger problem. He was reckless and naive, always promising that everything was going to be fine. When it was all clearly going to shit. He kept fucking up with his dirty job to the point where I was being forced to work for the same man.  Otherwise... otherwise he'd kill my mother," your voice broke in the last moment when your throat grew too tight, not letting you speak any further. You could already feel the tears spilling into your eyes, blurring out the view before you. You clenched your jaw, suppressing the urge to burst out into tears as you sucked in a deeper breath.

     "I often got beaten and tortured if they didn't like something I did," you continued, your voice trembling. "They would drug me, slowly cut away at my skin, drill holes in my body. But that wasn't the worst part. They were laughing their asses off at my pain, I was their entertainment. My father didn't know about it, my mother was completely clueless. And I was helpless against them, I had no one, so all I could do was suffer. And I suffered for weeks, months, hiding any injury I've gotten from everyone else. I got scarred so deeply, those days keep coming back... every fucking night I see the same faces, laughing at me and telling me how they want to have some fun," you laughed bitterly, letting the tears, that gathered up in your eyes, spill down your cheeks.

     "They're your nightmares," Gavin finished for you, looking back at you with a pained expression on his face.

     "Yeah... After they were done with my father, they just shot him dead. And of course they had to force me to watch. If everything else wasn't painful enough for me already," your voice lowered to a whisper and you almost choked out a sob, covering your mouth with your fist when the same memories from that horrific night flashed before your eyes all over again. You could barely see anything before you as more tears started flowing down your face. You only felt Gavin's warm hands as they grabbed you by the shoulders pushing you closer and into his arms. You didn't fight against his gesture of empathy, letting yourself cry into his shoulder as you wrapped your own arms around his waist. His fingers slipped against your cheek, pushing any loose strands of hair away from your face and behind your ear in a calming gesture.

     "Even if your memories are painful, don't forget that at the end of the day they're just memories," he murmured above your ear after a longer moment of shared silence. "Nothing this bad will ever happen to you," he tried to reassure you, even though you didn't feel any more relieved. You've heard the same words spoken to you from enough people already. He was just another person repeating the same promises.

  You only pushed your head off his shoulder, looking up at his grey eyes.

     "You know our job is dangerous..." you whispered. "We're basically hunting down the same criminals."

     "You're right," he agreed, his hands coming up to cup your cheeks as his thumbs wiped away your tears carefully. "But that was your family business, this is your work. You have back-up here, alright? A group of policemen that got your back." he kept on trying to reassure you that nothing bad was ever to happen to you, even though you knew he was wrong.

  You just nodded your head, suppressing the need to deny his statements as you felt his hands slip from your face and down to your shoulders. You knew he was trying to be a good friend and comfort you, probably worried off his ass after seeing you in such a bad state. You would've done the same if you were in his position.

     "I still need to find out what happened to Hank..." you whispered and slipped from under his touch, grabbing your cup and walking to the same table he was sitting next to.

     "Connor checked Hank's house last night. He didn't find him there," you soon added when you didn't receive any responses from Reed. You only slumped down on a high bar stool, blowing off steam from your coffee to take a bigger gulp, feeling its warmth fill your stomach right away.

     "That doesn't ring me any bad news," Gavin spoke out from the other side of the room, as he leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest.

     "Don't forget that he didn't show up to work yesterday," your eyes trailed back at him with a knowing expression on your face. "So technically he's been gone for more than 24 hours now," you murmured and put the cup on the table next to you, letting out a deeper sigh to relief some tension that started building up in your body. It didn't help.

     "Did you even try calling him last night? As soon as you found out that he's been announced missing?" you couldn't help but ask , curiosity getting a hold of you.

  The expression on his face immediately changed, the corners of his lips dropping into a frown. His gray irises watched you in silence as you grabbed you cup and raised it to your lips, taking another smaller sip from it, scared to burn your tongue.

     "Yeah... could only leave a voicemail. He never answers my phone calls anyways," he finally scoffed, his voice clearly filled with annoyance.

     "At least his phone wasn't turned off," you soon added and went all quiet, chewing on your bottom lip nervously. You couldn't help but worry that something bad happened to him. It wasn't in his nature to disappear from the face of the earth without a word or two. He always returned back, he always showed up at the precinct despite how shitty he felt after a night of drinking. He was always there, even if it was in a form of a short message. He always kept in touch.

  Now?

  No word, no calls,  _no-nothing_. 

     "Try again," you suggested out of nowhere and your gaze traveled back at Gavin.

     "He's not gonna answer..." he started denying your suggestion quickly when you had to stop him mid-sentence.

     "Just do it, you have his number," you shot back stubbornly and he exhaled loudly through his nostrils as he pushed his hips off the counter, moving closer to the table you were sitting next to. He pulled his phone out from his jacket and sat down on a chair across from you. You watched him all tensed up as he unlocked his phone without a word, typing out Hank's number. His thumb pushed on the green dial button and turned on the loudspeaker, putting the phone on the table between you.

   You both listened in silence as the first few long phone call signals rolled out from the speaker, until someone simply hung up. Your gazes met in an intense moment of silence and you noticed the sudden change in his expression. He looked... scared, even if it was for a second before he snapped back into it, you could still see some fear that lingered on his face.

     "That doesn't tell us anything," he murmured defensively and locked his phone, hiding it back in the pocket of his jacket.

     "I'm starting not to like this", you whispered quietly and your hand reached towards the cup until you felt the warmth of his palm as he hooked it around your wrist, forcing your gaze back on him.

     "Listen, worrying is the last thing you should do now. Not until it'll become obvious that something actually happened to him..."

  You could tell that he was trying to calm you down, but you couldn't ignore your gut which was continuously telling you that something was off with Hank.

     "He's my friend, Gavin. Of course I'm gonna worry about him..." you sighed and felt his fingers slip off your wrist as he leaned back in his seat. 

     "I'm just saying... Hank's unpredictable, he can do a lot of crazy shit during one night," Gavin didn't back down this easy, keeping his ground, which made you clench your teeth from the slight frustration that started to grow within you. He wasn't helping the situation, he was just starting another argument.

     "You don't know the man as well as I do, Gavin. Hank's not as unpredictable as you think he is. He wouldn't throw himself head on into fire like that..." you whispered back coldly.

     "Unless he managed to bury himself in a pile of problems and now is facing his consequences... He might've been hiding a lot of shit behind his back, all this time playing as if nothing was actually happening... You think he's not capable of that? He's a pretty reserved person..." he jerked his eyebrow, staring back at you with a knowing look on his face.

     "I have to go," you only whispered and slid off the bar stool, leaving the room without a word, because you didn't want to argue with him any further. It was useless and you were just wasting your time.

   You knew Gavin tried to stay rational- that was the biggest difference between him and you. He never trusted his instincts or his gut, he always stuck to the facts. And if the facts were telling him nothing now, he didn't find any reasons to worry. You could only wish you had his way of thinking, it would've spared you so many hours of endless stress and anxiety.

    You exhaled slowly through your mouth, trying to calm your emotions down a bit, even though it was barely working. Your heart was already beating nervously in your chest. Distracting yourself was probably the best option you had at that moment.

   Your eyes quickly trailed to Connor once you stopped next to your desk. He was leaning back in his chair now, with his android jacket off and hanging on its backrest. The sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up to his elbows, making him look far more casual than you were used to, since you always saw him in proper, professional composure. This was new.

  You could tell that he was bored off his ass, as he played with his coin, flicking it upwards into the air with his thumb, until he'd catch it into his palm with a swift move of his fingers to repeat the same motion over and over again in an endless loop. His brown eyes were focused on one point before him, watching Fowler work. 

     "Let's go, android boy," you exclaimed and he perked up quickly from his slumped posture, swiftly hiding the coin in the pocket of his pants as he stood up.

     "We'll have to inspect Hank's house more closely, because I'm starting to grow worried," you spoke out in a more serious tone this time, watching him pick up his own jacket on your way out. 


	3. Caught on a Hook

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I written anything proper and I'm happy to be back. I've got a lot more chapters planned out for this story and a lot of drafts already written out, so I'm excited to share more with yall, Enjoy!  
> P.S. this chapter gonna get real tense real quick

   Hank's house was in the outskirts of Detroit, situated in a calm suburban area. You had a few good hours of driving ahead of you- perfect opportunity for Connor to either kill you with awkward silence or kill you with awkward small talk.

  He was terrible at it. Every single android was.

  You didn't even know how Hank could stand all the awkwardness that radiated off of Connor whenever he tried to act all human and socialize. You knew he was designed for combat and interrogation. Cyberlife probably didn't consider his social skills and how much they'd benefit him in negotiation and adapting to humans more naturally. Too bad. He would've made a far more tolerable partner in crime.

     "Detective?" his sudden question interrupted all of your thoughts as you turned off the highway driving past the first suburban houses, their old structures barely standing.

     "Why do you hate androids?" the ultimate question fell from his lips which made your brain buzz with so many answers: did you want to lie to him, keep it secret, tell all the truth? Could you even trust him at this point or even open up to him? Was there any point to it since he was nothing more but a machine, designed to take orders and obey humans?

     "Should I start listing all the things I hate about you now?" you shot back finally, glancing up at him for a brief second. He nodded his head silently, waiting with his eyebrows slightly raised until you'd speak up- reveal your reasons.

  You only exhaled through your mouth and focused your eyes back on the road.

     "I'm not gonna waste my time trying to explain to you the reasons of my hatred. You'll have to figure it out yourself," you finally forced yourself to answer, which probably crushed his plans of getting to know you better.

  You didn't want him to know and then try to change your mind. For some reason you wanted him to work for it, play the good detective that he was and figure it out himself. He was designed for the purpose of crime solving after all, why not test his limits and see what he'd come up with?

     "Are you throwing me a challenge, detective?" a sudden smirk touched his lips and you almost rolled your eyes.

     "Will you always call me by that name, android boy?" you answered with a question, not even planning to continue on with that topic.

  He only shook his head with a small smile still dancing on his lips as he glued his gaze off of you, looking straight ahead.

     "I'm trying to stay professional, detective," he accentuated the last word as his eyes quietly moved back at you, waiting for your reaction. You let out a short breathy laugh.

     "I'd prefer you to stay as casual as possible instead," you murmured as you looked up at him once again.

     "That's exactly what I was told by Hank once he started getting displeased by my constant presence," you heard him speak up with a voice that was hiding a tint of pain behind it. Even though he didn't show it clearly, you still knew he was worried for Hank. Maybe even more than you were. He had his reasons after getting to know the man better and working with him for half a year now.

     "He probably told you already, right? Why he was so cold towards you at first?" you threw in the question out of the blue after a longer moment of silence that lingered in the air between you.

  Connor surprisingly didn't say anything, probably expecting you to continue.

     "He's an old man, he knows how the world was like before androids even got created. He was the witness of the first prototypes, he saw the gradual change. Which also brought out the worst in humanity, proved the point that history repeats itself. I know what he meant by that, even though he told me that things were much more simple back then. There was less tension, less strict division, less riots and wars... Androids were a reminder to him of that evident change, a change to the worse- not to the better. He told me how much he misses the times when his son was still alive, when he had a family of his own and wasn't drowning his life away in alcohol..." you fell silent, slowing down the car when you turned to a narrower street, getting close to your destination.

  Connor stayed quiet next to you, his LED circling in yellow- probably meant that he was lost in deep thought, processing every word you spoke to him.

     "You remind him of his son, you know... Just thought you should know that because he probably didn't man himself up to tell you how he really felt," you whispered soon after and braked in front of Hank's house standing on the other side of the road. 

  You turned off the engine and your eyes landed on his police car parked neatly on the driveway to his garage. He didn't leave the house... or at least not with his car.

     "He never really left..." you whispered with a worried look on your face.

  Connor only followed your gaze, his eyes landing on the vehicle standing in front of the metal garage door. He scanned it quickly as his LED flashed in yellow for a second.

     "His police car wasn't used recently," he half-whispered and turned his eyes back at you.

  You exhaled through your nostrils carefully and grabbed the keys from the ignition, stepping outside into the chilly autumn weather. You slammed the car door shut, walking to the other side of the road. You heard Connor step out onto the sidewalk as he closed the door behind him as well, crossing the road with big strides to catch up with you.

     "The further we go with this, the more I'm starting to think he was actually kidnapped," you murmured more to yourself than to the android next to you, even though he could easily hear every word you spoke.

     "All the evidence we have right now points to that," he explained, his voice slightly trembling.

     "We don't even have any actual evidence collected," you grumbled under your nose and opened the gate, stepping inside the yard.

  You felt Connor follow you closely as you walked carefully along the paved track leading up to the stairs. You drew the gun out of the holster swiftly, keeping it against the side of your thigh as you got closer to the front door. You had two options there: either barge in or quietly creep inside. The latter option seemed more reasonable since it was Hank's house after all and you barely knew what really happened.

     "Don't even think about doing something crazy," you squeezed the words out through your clenched teeth as you glanced at the android over your shoulder.

     "Do as I say, got it?" you added quietly and he nodded his head once, his gaze quickly jumping back at the front door.

  You ordered him to stand with his back glued to the wall, just in case the kidnappers were around, waiting for the so called help to arrive so they could attack you head on.

  You carefully checked whether the door was locked, pushing on the handle. It wasn't and it gave way opening up slowly.

  Strange...

  You thought Hank always locked himself up for the night for his own safety. That only meant one thing...

  You looked up at Connor who met your gaze in silence, giving you a small nod of encouragement. You pushed the door further open, walking into the living room that was connected with the kitchen. You moved your gun in front of you, straightening your arms as you cocked the hammer in it, keeping yourself at ready.

  You walked along the wooden floor, your aim trailing over every nook and cranny in the room as you passed all the furniture slowly. You heard Connor's steps fade quiet from behind you and you didn't even notice how quickly he disappeared in the other room. You could only hear his faint footsteps as he continued walking around, probably studying everything he could lay his eyes on. Other than that, the house seemed eerily quiet which brought some soft of relief as you let yourself relax a bit, your shoulders dropping from being tense. Yet, you still didn't trust your instincts fully, which told you that the place seemed abandoned and safe. You were proven wrong far too many times during your missions when the suspect would attack you and your colleagues out of nowhere.

  Your eyes trailed over all the beer bottles and pizza boxes that were scattered around the floor leading to the kitchen. Hank was probably having a feast last night or maybe even trying to bury himself in a food coma.

  You walked along all the junk, careful not to slip on the food leftovers as you entered the kitchen. It was just as empty and quiet as the other room. You could sense the smell of strong alcohol dancing in the air and when you moved around the table, you found the same bottle of scotch whiskey you drank from last night. If you knew he was getting hammered, you would've gladly drove to his house to keep him a good company. Even though that meant you'd end up in the same situation as him...

     "Detective?" you soon heard Connor call out to you from the other room, his voice sounding too worried than you were usually used to. You lowered your aim with a quiet sigh and slid the gun into the holster, moving back through the living room to Hank's bedroom. Your eyes quickly caught the android standing under a wall next to the window, staring at something in front of him and when you moved closer, you noticed that it was blood- splattered all over the wall.

     "Oh no..." the words instinctively spilled from your mouth in a quiet whisper when shock struck you like a lightning bolt, making you freeze in your spot.

  Connor glanced at you over his shoulder, his LED flashing between yellow and red as his body turned slightly towards you. He looked worried, which didn't help the situation, it only made you more nervous as you felt your heart speed up in your chest, beating high in your throat.

  You tried to reassure yourself that it was the attacker's blood- not Hank's, but the sheer fear in Connor's brown eyes made you think otherwise.

     "Connor... Don't tell me it's actually his blood..." you warned him in a trembling voice as step by a small step you moved closer to him.

  The expression on his face didn't change, it only got overtaken by fear- his eyes slowly growing wider and his LED shining bright red now.

     "It's his blood... I didn't see any of this when I was here last night..." he whispered, his voice just as shaky as yours- something you didn't expect to hear from him because you didn't know he grew fond of Hank so much he feared for his life. You didn't know androids had it in them to actually care about humans and their well-being... After all, Hank was the only close person he had, it would only make sense for him to become worried if something bad happened to him.

     "He got attacked..." he continued, uninterrupted. "The patterns show that it was from a cut. He got sliced by a knife but I couldn't find the weapon. There were no signs of fingerprints anywhere either, so the attacker clearly knew what he was doing..." Connor explained everything, the same tremble of worry never leaving his voice.

   You just stood there next to him- dumbfounded and barely able to mutter a single word let alone form a coherent sentence. Your throat became so tight you could barely breathe feeling the sudden rush of panic that hit you out of nowhere once you started struggling with your emotions. You wanted to cry, you wanted to leave the scene and return home just so you could wail your heart out. But you knew you had to report back to precinct and inform Fowler on the situation. You had to blink, otherwise you'd end up tearing up or worse- crying like some weak bitch. You didn't want to end up weeping your heart out. Not on the mission and not in front of an android.

  You didn't want to believe that Hank got kidnapped. You were scared of the worst outcome that he could've faced. He already got attacked and injured while trying to protect himself, god knows what he was dealing with at that very moment...

     "There's still a high probability that he's alive..." Connor soon intervened, walking a small step closer to you. He probably sensed your anxiety, which was almost spilling over the edges now as you started biting on your lip, trying to withhold yourself from breaking apart, your eyes frozen still on the blood.

     "With this much blood on the wall?" you choked out, continuously struggling with your breath as you were on the verge of crying, your throat barely cooperating with you.

  You soon heard your name leave his mouth and felt his palms as they slipped up your shoulders, forcing you to look up at him.

     "I know you're extremely terrified for his life now, but you need to focus if you want to solve this case and find him as fast as possible before it's too late..." he spoke out in a calm and soft voice. You didn't even know how he could do that, how he could stay so collected in a moment like this.

     "This is where the biggest difference falls between me and you, Connor..." you breathed, letting your eyes become blurry from tears. "You don't feel pain either physical or emotional, you don't experience panic, fear, grief or all of those combined into one huge mess. That's how I feel right now, because I know he's trapped somewhere, probably being tortured- all injured and slowly dying. Or maybe he's already dead. Maybe they killed him and dragged his body to dump somewhere and now we're wasting our fucking time," you spit out all the words that were dancing on the tip of your tongue, blinking away all the tears that were threatening to spill down your cheeks.

     "Who said I don't feel all of those emotions?" he managed to drop in the question, before you heard a loud clutter fall from the living room out of nowhere. Both of you froze in a long moment of silence, the tension steadily rising in the air.

 Your hand reached towards your gun, pulling it out slowly from the holster. You motioned for him to move behind you as you both carefully walked along the bedroom towards the door. You stopped before you stepped out into the corridor, pulling your gun in front of you as you kept your aim still. You slowly moved further along the corridor and towards the living room where the noise came from, feeling Connor follow you closely in careful steps.

  The room seemed just as quiet as you first entered it, apart from the chairs standing next to the kitchen table that were now thrown onto the floor. Someone was here and either tried to escape or cause a distraction.

  You were about to walk closer towards the kitchen, when you heard Connor's sharp intake of breath from behind you as someone pulled him away from you quickly. You weren't even fast enough to turn your head, when a pair of hands holding a piece of rope flashed before your eyes. The attacker's knee dug into your spine, pushing you forwards and into the rope as it got wrapped around your throat in a tight squeeze. You gasped loudly, losing your breath quickly, his knee keeping you still and away from him at a hand's reach.

  You turned your body swiftly towards him and swung the fist holding the gun at his face, winning you some time to catch your breath as his head flew backwards from the hit. The man didn't back down this easy though, grinning down at you with blood running from his nostrils.

  At that moment you could've easily killed him, your pointing finger was itching to pull on that trigger and finally end him. Yet, you needed him alive. He was the only evidence you had...

 The attacker tugged at the ends of the rope quickly, pulling you closer towards him as his knee flew upwards and into your stomach, pushing all the air out of your lungs. You almost stumbled down onto the ground, continuously gasping for the needed air, your knees giving out in mere seconds, if not the rope that got tightened back around your throat- still keeping you up.

  You didn't have no choice left but to aim downwards as you pulled the trigger blindly, letting the bullet strike his foot. He let out a pained grunt, the tightness around your neck loosening up just a bit to let you catch a few breaths. You didn't waste any more time and flung your fist holding the gun upwards and against his gut, as another grunt spilled from his mouth.

  That didn't help you escape from his grip, it only angered him when you received a painful pay-back as another hard kick to your stomach threw you completely off your feet. You stumbled to the ground with a loud whine, your weight pushing your neck into the rope so hard you started choking, not able to breathe anymore.

  The man was much stronger than you and clearly knew how to fistfight, landing his kicks against your weakest spots to the point where you tumbled down onto the floor on all fours, gasping for the needed air, your whole body pulsating from pain.

  The attacker took the opportunity out of the moment to kick the gun from under your trembling hand as it slid against the floor further away from you. He stepped behind you and pulled on the rope, forcing you to look upwards and at Connor, who got thrown against the wall by the other android, still trying to fight him off.

  You watched as the android quickly ripped the thirium pump out of Connor's torso, throwing it somewhere to the side. Connor choked out a gasp, his LED shining bright red in the darkness of the corridor. He took another punch to the gut and a louder gasp fell from his lips as his knees completely gave out, his body sliding down against the wall in defeat.

  You could only mouth a trembling "no", your view gradually turning blurry from the tears that started spilling into your eyes.

  You didn't even notice how the android started heading towards you slowly, his footsteps echoing loudly in your ears. His steel cold gaze was lying heavily on you, pushing on you to the point where you felt completely helpless and vulnerable.

  The same steel cold gaze you felt when you were locked up and tortured. The same gaze that looked you dead in the eyes when you were pleading them to stop... So emotionless and so blank, it made the situation even more painful than it already was...

  You felt the man behind you pull on the rope, forcing you upwards and back onto your shaky legs. The breath caught in your lungs and your stomach dropped from pure fear as you started mumbling quiet "no's" and "please's", knowing exactly what was about to happen. The android before you didn't even flinch, his expression stayed the same- deadpan and threatening to attack you any moment.

  And he did- as soon as he stopped before you, his fist quickly swung upwards and against your gut, pushing a whine out of you as you could barely withhold yourself any longer, your knees buckling- making the rope tighten back around your throat. The android didn't stop, continuing to hit at your weakest spots mercilessly as you cried out at each one of his punches, barely able to breathe- the rope constricting the airflow with each jolt of your body. You tried pushing him away from you, punching him, kicking him but it was no use when he was much taller and heavier than you. The kicks did nothing to him, you only got another pay-back for it as you felt his sharp knee dig into your side. You whined from pain, gasping for air when you felt the android's cold fingers come up in a tight grip around your jaw, forcing your head upwards.

  You squeezed your eyes shut, already readying yourself up for the worst outcome you could possibly imagine when the sudden gunshot interrupted the intense silence dancing in the room, startling you with its loudness.


End file.
